Laughs, Latino-Style

“I understand you’re going to give us the key to the city,” comedian Cheech Marin told the City Council here during a civic ceremony kicking off the Latino Laugh Festival. “But, really, Mr. Mayor, half a key would’ve been fine.”

Ba da bing. Let the laughs begin.

Hosted by Marin, comedian Paul Rodriguez and MTV veejay Daisy Fuentes, the three-day festival last weekend was recorded by Showtime for a 13-week summer series that will begin airing on the cable channel July 12 at 11:30 p.m.

Producers plan to make the Latino Laugh Festival an annual rite of summer in this south Texas city that is more than 60% Latino. They are betting that the event, which showcases young talent as well as established stars, will convince industry executives that Latinos, called “the last bastion of network reticence” by Marin, have a voice that needs to be heard.

Latinos, who make up more than 10% of the U.S. population, constitute only 2% of prime-time characters on TV, studies show.

“Hispanics are right to be asking, ‘Where are we on television?’ ” said Jerry Offsay, president of Showtime programming. “What is out there that plays to their sensibilities? Basically, the answer is nothing. But we are working to develop stories that have a relevance to the Hispanic community.”

A Who’s Who of Latino talent appeared at the festival, including Maria Conchito Alonso, Luis Avalos, Benjamin Bratt (“Law & Order”), talk-show host Cristina Saralegui, Bill Dana (“My Name . . . Jose Jimenez”), Erik Estrada, Mario Lopez (“Saved by the Bell”), Ada Maris (“Nurses”), club comic John Mendoza, Maty Monfort, Edward James Olmos, Tony Plana, Geraldo Rivera, 1996 Playmate of the Year Stacy Sanchez and Liz Torres (“The John Larroquette Show”).

“If you knew how much we were paying everybody, you’d be chilled to the bone,” said Jeff Valdez, the comedian and producer who hatched the idea for a Latino comedy festival more than three years ago. “This is a project of passion. It’s a matter of pride.”

Valdez, who previously hosted KTLA-TV Channel 5’s “Comedy Compadres,” said he and co-producer Paul Block, head of Easting Down Productions, tried to sell all three networks on the project and were turned down. They had all but given up when Showtime, with the support of Viacom Productions, offered its package.

Although stand-up comedy took the spotlight at nightly “Diamonds in the Rough” shows and the culminating “Comedy Fiesta,” the festival also featured short comic films, international novelty acts in outdoor “Circus Ole” performances and “Latino-logues,” with stars such as Rivera and Olmos in short skits written by Los Angeles writer Rick Najera.

While much of the humor dealt with Latino social and sexual stereotypes, audiences didn’t need to be fluent in Spanish to get the jokes.

Telling the story of having his first child, Andres Fernandez said, “And the baby comes out and it’s all red and blue. I’m like, ‘What is it?’ Then the placenta came out and I’m like, ‘It’s twins!’ ”

Often, comics poked fun at themselves. “I’m a light-skinned Latino,” Carlos Alazraqui told the crowd at the Majestic Theater on Saturday night, “the kind America’s not afraid of. Casper the Friendly Latino.”

But one of the longest and loudest ovations of the festival came when comic Rudy Moreno, playing border patrol agent Buford Gomez in a “Latinologues” performance, proclaimed, “If the original Border Patrol had arrested more Anglos, this would still be Mexico.”

“I think the entertainment industry is finally waking up to the fact that the Hispanic culture has this deep talent pool, and it’s long overdue,” said Perry Simon, president of Viacom Television. “My hope is this kind of event will have a positive domino effect back home in Los Angeles, in New York, in Chicago. You know, humor is the great leveler. When people can laugh with each other, the walls start coming down.”

But Latinos believe barriers in the industry, especially on network television, remain strong.

“Every decade, we get a show,” Valdez said. “What’s it been, 20 years since ‘Chico and the Man’? And about 10 years since ‘AKA Pablo.’ So we’re coming up on the end of the decade--another three years and we’re in there.”

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Actually, Latinos don’t have to wait that long. “Common Law,” starring comedian Greg Giraldo (who appeared at the Latino Laugh Festival) and Gregory Sierra, premieres this fall on ABC.

Giraldo, who plays a rebellious attorney at a large Manhattan firm, said he has been “pleasantly surprised” that the network has let him create the show he envisioned.

“I really did think they were going to force these stereotypes on us, but there’s never been any pressure to ‘Latin up’ the show,” he said.

Giraldo was “discovered” by ABC performing in the “New Faces” series at the Montreal Comedy Festival, and Latino Laugh Festival producers hope the San Antonio event will lead to bigger and better things for its participants.

During a panel discussion called “Developing the Latino Market,” Alex Nogales of the National Hispanic Media Coalition said the Latino community suffers from “benign neglect” by the three major networks.

“They have this silly notion that we only listen to Spanish radio and watch Spanish television,” he said. “But we are going to make a difference one day soon. Nobody is targeting us right now. When someone wakes up and sees the numbers, they are going to reap the economic rewards.”

Cable outlets such as Showtime are able to air programming such as the Latino Laugh Festival because cable is about “the intensity of the viewing experience, whereas network TV is about tonnage for advertisers,” said Mark Zakarin, executive vice president for original programming for Showtime.

Marin, who returns to CBS in the fall in “Nash Bridges,” with Don Johnson, and who co-stars in the upcoming Kevin Costner film “Tin Cup,” believes “the turn will happen by attrition.”

“Blacks made progress by being loud and in-your-face with organizations like the NAACP,” he said. “Latinos don’t have groups like that that are political allies. We need an all-encompassing voice. Sometimes the Latino voice is indistinguishable.

“But we’re starting to populate shows around,” Marin said. “Rather than a full-frontal assault, now the move is to do these flanking maneuvers.”

He counts the Latino Laugh Festival on Showtime as one such “flanking maneuver.”

But Nogales advocates the frontal assault. He said he constantly lobbies network executives on Latinos’ behalf and believes that a boycott could be an effective tool.

“You have to pound at the big boys because that’s where the money is,” he said. “We have tremendous economic clout in our community, and we need to use it.”

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Viacom’s Simon suggests a two-pronged approach of “pounding on the door and slipping in programming wherever you can.”

“The networks’ market share is declining each year, thank God,” he said. “And what we’re getting is a much more representative media landscape. I would urge [Latinos] to look to other outlets, to get programs on wherever you can.

“Frankly,” Simon said, “we went into this project [Latino Laugh Festival] knowing it would not be a big moneymaker. We feel we’re investing in the future. This is the first of what we hope will be many, many events that we look at as growth opportunities.”